Anthony Joshua will be defending his heavyweight throne against Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller this summer. Joshua meets Miller in his United States debut from Madison Square Garden on June 1. Joshua will defend his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles against Miller.
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, spoke to Sky Sports on the match-up recently and admitted it has been hard trying to find someone to replicate Miller in camp (via Boxing Scene):
“It’s very difficult. I’m very hands-on in that respect, and I get involved with sparring. We select sparring partners between [Joshua’s trainer] Rob McCracken, AJ’s training team, and AJ and me,” Hearn said.
“To find a 23st guy, who moves fast, who has fast hands, who has a great engine, who forces the pressure, is very, very difficult. It’s impossible, to be honest, to [imitate] Jarrell Miller, in terms of weight, size, speed, feet, everything. We’re going to get as close as we can.
“We feel as though we’ve got a decent selection of guys. [Joshua] is very focused, he’s in a great place right now, he’s in Sheffield. He’ll probably do another three or four weeks there before he goes to Florida, and he’s got the bit between his teeth. The build-up was spicy. I think you’re going to see a great performance from Anthony Joshua in this fight.”
Miller is attempting to pull off a major upset over Joshua when they square off. The Brooklyn native is undefeated in his boxing career at 23-0-1. The six-foot-four knockout artist has won 20 of his 23 career wins by finish. If he is able to add Joshua to that list, it will be one of the biggest upsets the division has ever seen.
What do you think about Hearn admitting it’s difficult to replicate Miller in camp?
